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What’s the Craic, God?

Theatre 118, Glasgow

Four stars

 

Aoife McDonagh has a dream. Sweet seventeen and a self styled ‘half a virgin’, Aoife can’t wait get away from small town County Kildare and make her mark on the mean streets of London. If that particular city didn’t happen to be in England, Aoife’s family might like it a whole lot better, but she doesn’t care what they think anymore. If she stays that would be the end of her. Especially after what happened with Erin Kelly, the coolest girl in school who she’s been besotted with since they met when they were six. Erin’s going away as well, so who know what might happen next, but at least they’ll always have that moment. 

 

As confessionals go, Rebecca Donovan has written a rites of passage that taps into the hormonal hunger of young women on the verge with a comic dynamism and an unfiltered frankness that could make a nun blush. Performed by Donovan in Georgia Nelson’s production for Theatre 118, Aoife is a guilt-ridden force of nature as she attempts to get through the increasingly complex every day growing pains teenage dreams are made of these days. 

 

There is some fine writing on show here that soft soaps the audience with some potty mouthed one-liners before getting to the play’s serious heart. Punctuated by recordings of Aoife’s more presumably faithful younger self, family, religion and hormones conspire to form the ultimate unholy trinity. This might well scar Aoife for life, but its presence also looks set to power her along to becoming the person she’s been all along. And when God does finally make themselves known, it is the best punchline of all in a no holds barred debut worth saying a prayer for. 


The Herald, December 9th 2025

 

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